


Rose of Corruption

by Nerisvyre



Series: Rosebud [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulation, Mentor/Apprentice dynamics, More tags to be added, Mostly not in chronological order, Seriously not a healthy relationship, corrupt verse, darker themes, essentially written as the ideas and motivation comes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2019-08-03 20:31:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16332965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerisvyre/pseuds/Nerisvyre
Summary: The AU where, upon learning what her mentor really is, Diana stays and continues learning and traveling with Yor.





	1. First Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> From the angst-fluff prompt list: “You did what you had to do.”

Diana didn’t know what she was expecting when the corruption first started to set in. In the first few weeks she hardly noticed any changes, especially as Dredgen distracted her with more intense spars, training sessions, and surprising acts of affection when the whispers got loud or she woke up terrified by nightmares. Now, though, she felt a deep hunger that refused to be satisfied by normal means. So she gnawed uselessly at the bare bones of what had been her breakfast as she waited for her mentor to return, hoping that it would distract her enough. She didn’t want to think about what she would have to do to sate that hunger.

Diana jumped to her feet as she felt a bright spark. She scrambled towards the edge of the small cliff in the cave and looked down to watch as a Guardian and their Ghost ran in. Without realizing it, she unsheathed her knife and pulled out her own hand cannon - now decorated with bone - as the Hunter bent down to try and catch his breath. She felt his Light, felt it sing, and hungered for it.

If Guardian and Ghost were talking, she didn’t hear it over the ringing in her ears, the whispers compelling her to feed, to devour. She stood and let herself fall from the edge, landing on the Hunter’s back as her knife pierced between his shoulder and neck as she shot the back of his head. The energy rushing into her was so sudden and jarring that she gasped, her hands shaking as she pulled her knife out and stepped away from the corpse.

Already, she felt more alive. For a precious few seconds, she felt euphoria and fulfillment. Until the shock and horror over what she’d done set in. Trembling, she looked at the body, at the blood pooling from his fatal wounds, then at her knife with a few drops still clinging to the metal. She heard screaming but she simply stood there, frozen in place, save for holstering her weapons.

A gunshot rang through the air, silencing the scream, and it was only then that Diana looked away and saw the dead Guardian’s Ghost now pinned to the cave wall by the familiar jagged spikes fired from her mentor’s gun. Idly, she realized that it was the Ghost that had been screaming. She heard him approach but didn’t turn her gaze towards him until he stopped in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She supposed it was supposed to be comforting. She almost wanted to feel comforted. It would make this whole thing much simpler.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Dredgen smiled, “Feeling better?”

“I…” Diana started, finding it difficult to speak. She trembled as her gaze drifted back to the corpse. “I killed-“

“So that you would live,” he interrupted, his other hand caressing her cheek as he made her look back up at him. She leaned into his touch, needing the small amount of comfort. Even if she was still uncertain and afraid of him after recent revelations. “You were starving. You did what you had to do.”

Diana stayed silent. It struck her that he didn’t seem surprised there was a Guardian in the area, or that they ended up in the cave where she and Dredgen had made camp the night before. He seemed too at ease to be even a little surprised. His expression seemed relaxed. Then again, she saw very few things that fazed him in the years she’d known him. But it told her that he wasn’t the least bit concerned that he had only just arrived when the Guardian came through.

“You led them here.”

“Clever girl.” His smile twisted into something sinister and he pulled her closer, the hand on her shoulder now settled on her waist. “Tell me, how did it feel to rip the Light out of them? To devour it?” he all but purred, a wicked glint in his eye. It made her breath hitch and a shiver go down her spine.

“It felt… like being woken suddenly by a splash of cold water,” Diana said breathlessly, “It felt like an adrenaline rush in the heat of battle, or just after. It felt…”

“Euphoric?”

“Yes.”


	2. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the drabble prompt “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

_The swarm was never-ending. Hive witches cackled, their magic singing her armor while the Knights ran at her with their swords and boomers, Thrall with their claws, Ogres with that deadly beam of void. Meanwhile, that dead Guardian hung in the air above them all, his fatal wounds, the wounds SHE inflicted, bled. She ran out of bullets. In a last-ditch attempt to get out of this chaos, she took out her knife-_

Diana woke up thrashing and yelling, her arms pinned down, an uncomfortable weight on top of her, and hearing words but not comprehending them in her panicked state. It was still dark out, the fire little more than a few flames atop smoldering embers.

“Drop it.”

She tried to kick him off, failing miserably and only succeeding in tiring herself out more.

“Diana.  _Drop. It_.”

His grip on her became painful and she yelped, trembling still, but no longer flailing. She opened her clenched fists, feeling for the first time the weight of her knife in her right hand. Dredgen breathed a sigh of relief - a rare occurrence in all the time she’d known him - and let go of her left arm to take ahold of the knife and toss it somewhere near their other belongings. Only then did he finally release and get off of her.

She didn’t protest when he pulled her up into a sitting position, wrapped his arms around her, and started carding his fingers through her hair. She buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him. It was several minutes before her trembling started to slow, steadily melting into his embrace as the last vestiges of her nightmare faded. She knew that she shouldn’t seek comfort from him, from the man that stole her away from her fated life long before she realized what was going on. But Dredgen was the only one there with her, and damn good at getting her to open up to him. Chip was gone, the little robot forced to leave her Guardian when he made the Hunter taint her Light.

“Tell me what frightened you so, Rosebud?” he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers. She knew what he was doing, knew that he was smothering her with affection to forcefully mend the rift that formed between them after she found out he’d been lying to her. The problem was… it was working anyway. Were she not still a bit scared after her nightmare, she might’ve blushed.

“I… I saw that Hunter I killed. Killed him again,” Diana rasped, her throat still raw from her screaming and yelling, “Then Hive swarmed me. They kept coming, the Wizards were… they laughed. I ran out of bullets.”

“And so you went for your knife.”

She didn’t answer him. Didn’t need to. She could’ve hurt herself or him if he hadn’t woken her up. Diana didn’t want to know what he’d do to her if she had hurt him, even though she knew something like this would be an accident. She’d seen a glimpse of the monster Yor truly was.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you, Diana. Not tonight at least,” he said, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, “I won’t let it. You know that, right?”

“I suppose…” she sighed, pulling away from him to lay back down. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, she just felt so so tired. She shivered and nestled under the blanket. What was left of the fire did little to warm her. Dredgen laid back down beside her and pulled her close. She tried to ignore just how wonderful the extra warmth felt. Tried.


	3. Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the Tumblr ask prompt "You're a terrible liar." for Diana and Yor.

The last of the gunshots rang out and the last of the gunners died, smoke rising in the air as storm clouds rolled in. It threatened to choke her even with the occasional gust of wind briefly clearing it out. Diana’s hands continued to shake. With nothing left to kill, she holstered her cannon and brought her scarf up to cover her nose.

She grew bitter thinking of the events that led to this. If they’d just left her and Yor well enough alone, they might’ve lived another day. Well, they were most likely bandits given the way they’d tried to coerce mentor and apprentice into giving them stuff, but still... It was terrifying to see how quickly he’d become cruel after they’d irritated him. Was his tolerance really so low, or was this just an off-day? It’s not like the gunners would’ve been able to permanently harm either of them. But the same could not be said of the gunners’ survivability. Was this side of him just another thing he’d kept hidden from her? It certainly seemed possible. Before she’d first learned part of the truth about his nature and abilities, before she’d tried to leave, she’d never seen him like that.

But more terrifying than that? The realization that even though he scared her sometimes, she didn’t want to leave. Dredgen had been manipulating her from the beginning - had wormed his way into her head, her heart - and yet she couldn’t bring herself to mind anymore.

The sound of thunder, the fall of raindrops, and the feeling of his hands drawing the hood of her cloak over her head pulled Diana back to the present moment. He gestured towards an abandoned farmhouse about a hundred meters from their current position in the field, and they made their way over to it. While the lightning wouldn’t really be an issue for them, it was still some unnecessary pain and injury that she would much rather avoid. Really, it’d do more damage to their armor than it would to them, given the paracausal forces keeping mentor and apprentice alive.

The farmhouse... could’ve been in worse shape, all things considered. Ivy had crawled its way up one of the sides. The roof bowed down a bit, yet hadn’t collapsed. Only traces of paint remained on the wood, the rest worn by weather and time. The door creaked as Dredgen pushed it open. The rusty hinges snapped and the door fell with a thud onto the wood floor, despite the fact that the Risen hadn’t used much force at all. They shared a look before he stepped over the threshold.

“Should do for now." Dredgen pulled down his hood, eyeing the surroundings, "Until the storm passes or morning comes, at least.” 

"I just hope it doesn't come down on top of us," Diana said as she walked into the abandoned house and pulled her hood and scarf down. She started wringing water out of her hair and her cloak, a bit on edge and annoyed that she hadn't noticed the rain straight away in order to bundle up herself. Especially after her mentor kept stressing the importance of being aware of her surroundings. Hopefully it was such a minor thing that wouldn't irritate Yor so much. Hopefully the slaughter was enough to placate the man who would be monster. She flinched at the crash of thunder before realizing it was not his tainted arc Light, and cursed at herself for being so jumpy.

Dredgen frowned and tilted her head up to look at him. She stilled in his hold, yet her heart started racing. "Everything alright, Rosebud?" he murmured. 

Good _lord_ , that gentleness and that pet name shouldn't have sounded as good as it did rolling from his tongue.

"Y-yes..." Diana stammered, tentatively nodding her head, "Just... still feeling the adrenaline from fighting those guys-"

" _Rosebud_ ," He cut her off, sighing, "You're a terrible liar. What is it, really?"

The awoken woman bit her lip, gaze dropping to his breastplate. She didn't really want to tell him in fear of how he would react, but he knew her too well to be fooled by whatever lies she'd come up with. With a shaky breath, she murmured, "It was... a bit scary seeing your cruelty, how quickly you were to anger but..." she glanced up at him, trying to gauge his reaction. However, his expression betrayed nothing. He merely looked at her, waiting for her to finish. She took a deep breath in an ineffective attempt to calm her nerves. "But that's... not the scary bit. Even knowing who you are, I don't _want_ to leave. I- It's not because of what you'll do if I try, anymore. But-"

"But because you simply can't bring yourself to want to."

Diana nodded her head.

A wicked grin stretched across Yor's face as he pinned her to a nearby wall. Her breath hitched, cheeks burned, and she wrapped her arms around him as he trailed kisses and bites along her neck. Her legs nearly turned into jelly and she melted easily as he pulled her into a searing kiss. It shouldn't have felt as wonderful as it did. She shouldn't be wanting more, and yet she only held tighter, blushing as she felt his smirk against her lips, as his chuckle did things to her that she couldn't describe. She was left panting as he broke off the kiss, heart pounding as he pressed his forehead to hers, looking quite pleased with himself.

And just why she couldn't bring herself to leave suddenly clicked.


End file.
